Greetings, Riftwalker!

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Since my last newsletter, I've had the terrifying pleasure of attending the Colorado Festival of Horror as a panelist for the third year in a row, and as usual, it did NOT disappoint. With a carnival of guests including David Howard Thornton, the Chiodo brothers (I neeeed to rewatch Killer Clowns from Outer Space), Barbara Hampton, and more, there was certainly no lack of people and things to see.

One of my favorite parts of conventions is wandering through the vendors' room and browsing all the artists' offerings. I LOVE me some fan art. Mike and I came home with these awesome prints. Pennywise will have a home in the living room; the smaller prints are going in my office for inspiration.

On Friday, during our “Be Your Own Witch” panel, Sandi Labo, Christina Bergling, and I had a great discussion exploring the relationship between powerful women and their vilification and repression by society. We also talked about how witches have historically been used to frighten children into behaving. My chosen witches to discuss were witches from our childhood (The Brothers Grimm, The Witches, etc.), Carrie, and the Castevets from Rosemary’s Baby (one of my favorite comfort movies–yes, I’m that kind of weirdo 🤪).

During Sunday's panel, “The Grin of the Id”, we explored how wearing a mask allows for the id to come out and play. While researching the Joker for this panel, I stumbled across some fascinating bits of the character’s history.

Do you know where the Joker’s signature look came from? Some credit the joker playing card while others point to Conrad Veidt’s, Gwynplaine, from the 1928 movie The Man Who Laughs. They both make great cases.

Either way, this icon will never be mistaken for anyone else.

I’m going to take a moment here and gush over Veronica Cartwright.

I first bumped into her in the elevator as Mikey and I were going up to our room and was instantly starstruck. Being a part of the local con scene, I’ve had my share of run-ins with celebrities, but this was the first time I ran into someone I was hoping to meet! I immediately wanted to tell her how much I loved her in Witches of Eastwick, Alien, and the ‘78 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I also knew she must get that all the time and who was I to be bugging her in the elevator??? We made it to the 4th floor before I could muster up the courage to say anything. Not even a friendly “hi” 🤦

Thankfully, I had several more opportunities to rectify my deer-in-the-headlights-starstruck-ed-ness.

During Veronica’s Q&A on Saturday, we learned about a little bit about her career, including her experiences working with Alfred Hitchcock and Jack Nicholson. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to chat with Veronica and her assistant on Sunday morning and talk about favorite cereals and forgetting to take night pills.

The perfect convention send off was getting to watch The Witches of Eastwick with Mrs. Cartwright in attendance 🤘

As this newsletter is going out to you, I’ll be in Aurora for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Conference! It’s been over ten years since I’ve attended and I couldn’t be more excited…and nervous! I’ll definitely have plenty of opportunities to practice my elevator pitch. Do I have it nailed down? Absolutely not! But I’m working on it. Pitching my ideas and selling myself has always been hard for me. They fall into the same category as query letters and bios, but I know the more I do it, the better I’ll get at it. It can be terribly difficult to condense an entire universe down into a few sentences.

Here’s the current working version of my elevator pitch for Dance of the Gods. It’s still a WIP, but I wanna share it with you:

Dance of the Gods is a dark fantasy that explores what happens when the boundaries between realms fracture.

I’m looking forward to sharing my RMFW adventure with you in next month’s newsletter!

Until next time 💚

Mile Hi Con

October 23-26

Below are my panel assignments. More details can be found on their website here.

Please note that these are subject to change.

● Fri 6p, Conference 8: Playing Games (video, rpg, etc) Remotely or Hybrid

● Sat 2p, Conference 7: Art & AI: The Ethics and Morals Thereof

● Sat 3p, Conference 7: Dorothy and Alice: long shadows in fantasy

● Sun 12p, Conference 5: Building your Writing Bible (M)

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